The Biostatistics Core consists of personnel with statistical expertise. The goal of the Biostatistics Core is to collaborate with SPORE investigators and other core resource scientists to enhance the quality of the research undertaken in the University of Michigan Head and Neck SPORE. The Core personnel have been chosen because of their expertise in relevant areas of Biostatistics and because of their experience and knowledge of Head and Neck cancer. Biostatistics core personnel will collaborate with every one of the five proposed projects, will interact with the other cores and also will expect to interact with all funded development awards, and thus this core is crucially important to the SPORE. Personnel from the core will interact with the investigators in all stages of the research, beginning with the formulation of the research question, through the experimental design stage and data collection stage, to data analysis and interpretation, to the writing of reports and dissemination of results. Two areas where biostatistical expertise is indispensable are in experimental design and data analysis. It will be apparent from this proposal that Core personnel have played a significant role in designing the proposed experiments and in planning the data analysis. The Specific Aims of the core are to: (1) Assist investigators in the design of clinical and laboratory experiments, (2) Assist investigators in the analysis and interpretation of data from clinical and laboratory experiments and in writing of scientific manuscripts relaying Head and Neck cancer SPORE results to the scientific community. (3) Undertake translational biostatistics research to develop methodology relevant to Head and Neck cancer.